Civil Rights group: 11,232 in Mexico displaced by violence
A Mexican rights group says 11,232 people were forced to flee their homes due to drug gang violence in 2017.
The Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights says residents in six states fled because of “organized armed groups,” including cartels, local gangs and vigilantes.
The commission said Wednesday that a total of 329,917 people were forced to flee between 2006 and 2017, though it was unclear how many have since returned.
In April, soldiers escorted a convoy of 92 people terrorized by drug cartels out of their mountain hamlet in Guerrero state.
The group said another 8,928 people had to flee in 2017 because of local land, political or religious conflicts.
Most of those displacements occurred in indigenous communities in the southern state of Chiapas.
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